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OTTAWA — It’s a busy Saturday night at the Fairmont Château Laurier.

The 429 rooms in Rideau Street’s romantic castle are sold out. It’s packed with people attending the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards at the National Arts Centre, including the laureates. The cocktail lounge just off the main lobby will be the place to meet. Servers are given their pre-shift briefing: “Expect people in a hurry. Expect people in gowns.”

Down the hall in the Adam Room, the Ballroom and the Drawing Room, tables are dressed with linen and set with glasses, china and silverware awaiting two banquets and a wedding.

In the kitchen behind Wilfrid’s restaurant, waiters study large photographs of what each carefully composed dish on the night’s menu should look like. If the crème brûlée appears without fruit, the waiter will know to give it back to the kitchen to complete.

By the end of the evening, 665 people will have feasted at the hotel, which today celebrates a century of service.

“A hotel is a place where everybody takes care of everything,” observes Estrellita Karsh, who lived at the Château for 18 years with her husband Yousuf Karsh, the legendary portrait photographer whose studio drew celebrities from all over the world.

It takes 400 people to operate one of Canada’s most famous hotels on a 24-hour basis.

“Every hotel is its own world, its own city,” says Karsh. “It’s people. That’s what hospitality is.”

When there’s a full house, there are typically 750 guests in rooms that range from $200 a night to $2,800 for a presidential suite.

There are more than 65 job titles at the hotel, a clue to the complexity of looking after both building and patrons. About 170,000 people a year stay in the Château. Thousands more attend functions or visit the restaurant and bar.

In addition to a fabulous building, the hallmark of a grand hotel is first-class service. Even in 1929, the Citizen reported that “a guest may at any hour of the day or night go to their phone and place an order for almost anything and a skilled staff responds.” (During the 1973 Commonwealth Conference, housekeeping staff had to sew two mattresses together to accommodate the 400-pound King of Tonga.)

Much of what goes on happens “back of house” in the language of theatre. The Château calls it “heart of the house.”

Carts of food, housekeeping supplies and maintenance equipment travel a labyrinthe of corridors, service stairs and elevators hidden to the public. It’s a world of a concrete floors, yellow painted brick and suspended pipes.

On the doors leading from staff work areas to guest spaces is a mirror and a reminder: “You are now on stage. Smile and greet our guests.”

Behind the scenes can feel like “organized chaos,” says Executive Chef Daniel Buss, who on this night is overseeing an elegant banquet for 200 people in the ballroom. Crystal chandeliers, a gilt ceiling and classical pilasters create a regal setting. Ice sculptures and candles sparkle on the red-draped tables.

Buss looks in. He’s feeling anxious. “We’re late.”

Food service was to begin at 7 p.m. Speeches are still on. It’s 7:50 p.m.

“You want everything to go perfectly,” he says.

The celebration is for the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Soccer Association and includes guests from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA.)

In the pantry across the hall, a banquet manager checks the temperature of the soup. Another looks to see if more speakers have been added. Twenty-five servers dressed in black trousers and vests are at the ready.

The ballroom has been mapped out. Each server knows their route, where the VIPs are, and is practised to deliver in minutes so everyone can have their meal together.

It’s 7:55 p.m. A banquet manager hurries into the pantry. “We’re on!” By 8 p.m. trays are going in. The ballroom is filled with the cheerful sounds of conversation and silver spoons clinking china.

Two days later, the hotel received a thank-you note for “the best AGM banquet we have held in our history.”

“Never let them see you sweat,” says hotel spokeswoman Deneen Perrin. “Our job is to ensure perfect service and food quality for our guests.”

Here are just a few people who keep the Château running.

The Doorman: Gordon Miller

Gordon Miller, 45, knows the importance of a good first impression. He greets about 200 people a day under the hotel’s entrance loggia.

“We’re the first person people see and the last person people see,” he says. “When they arrive, I tell them ‘Welcome to the Fairmont Château Laurier’. I take their bags from their car. I try to ask if it’s a special occasion. If it’s an anniversary or a honeymoon I pass the information to my colleagues inside. Flowers are sent to the room or chocolate and strawberries.”

Tips are mostly toonies and loonies. The biggest gratuity was from an Arab sheik. “He pointed at me and my colleague. Suddenly another man came and he had a whole wad of 100-euro bills. He gave us each 100 euros for opening the door.”

Miller left a 21-year career in printing. “I love to travel. My wife said ‘You spend so much time talking to the doorman, maybe you should be one.’ I saw the ad in the paper and never looked back.”

It took four interviews to get accepted.

Discretion is part of the job. “People all the time ask is anyone special staying here. I always say everyone staying here is special.”

The Concierge: Catherine Fetherstonhaugh

Tracing a lost wallet or laptop? All in a day’s work. Getting a forgotten passport from a safety deposit box to the airport departures lounge in 45 minutes? Not unusual. But finding a white horse on short notice, well, that was out of the ordinary.

It was in 1994 when artist Lea Vivot decided she wanted to ride a horse to the unveiling of her sculpture, The Secret Bench of Knowledge. The event at Library and Archives Canada was taking place Sunday morning.

“She came to me on a Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. and asked for a white horse,” recalls Fetherstonhaugh.

This was pre-Internet. She consulted her “concierge bible” a resource book of contacts.

“It was very complicated to find a white horse that could come downtown.” A horse was located but in the end Vivot cancelled in favour of a white limo.

Then there was the Order of Canada recipient whose luggage went missing. He had no suit. Stores were still closed and he was due at Rideau Hall at 10 a.m. Fetherstonhaugh put him in a banquet manager’s suit. He wasn’t even staying at the Château. “We recruited his business,” she says.

When a former premier getting ready for a function at Parliament Hill forgot his bow tie and cufflinks, it was Fetherstonhaugh to the rescue. “We have hundreds of items in our tickle trunk — hairspray, bobby pins, socks, ties ...”

She works on the Fairmont Gold fourth floor, a $120 room upgrade which provides a separate concierge desk and lounge.

“You need to multi-task. You need to think on your feet. We’re dealing with chairmen, CEOs, prime ministers, presidents. You need to be able to discuss things at their level. You need to be well-read. Our goal is to engage conversation, retain their loyalty.”

She takes photos as reminders of guests’ preferences; for example, one woman’s wake-up tea with hot milk on the side and a banana arranged in a smiley-face.

“We’re always ordering flowers and champagne, and rose petals for special occasions.”

When a just-married woman wanted to give away her bouquet, Fetherstonhaugh assembled eight single women on staff. “We did a bouquet toss in the lobby. Honest-to-goodness it happened in five minutes. The whole lobby was cheering.”

The Director of Engineering: Silvano Cava

Silvano Cava, 56, first walked into the Château Laurier 36 years ago as an electrician’s assistant. His reaction was “Wow! What an old castle. It still has the wow effect.”

Cava’s job is keeping the 100-year-old building — all 660,000 square feet of it — in good shape.

Cava works 12-hour days and is on call 24/7. During a film shoot he was once called in at 4 a.m. to turn off specific lights in lobby; nobody else knew how to do it.

His sub-basement office is furnished with hotel antiques, including a 1929 desk. “We say the buck stops here.”

Cava knows the hotel’s secret places. He has found newspapers from the 1930s in crawl spaces and often climbs the narrow stairs to the vacant eighth floor where chambermaids were once housed two to a room under sloped roofs. It’s now a mechanical space of ducts, valves and gauges.

“I get dirty a lot,” he says. “I have to buy shirts every couple of weeks.”

He’s turned down job offers elsewhere. “It’s fun working here.”

The Room Attendants: Anita Talwar and Sophia Gibson-Williams

If you see someone vacuuming her way out of a room wearing pearls and diamond earrings, that will be room attendant Anita Talwar, above. “Part of the uniform is a smile but how you look also impresses the guests,” she says.

Talwar, who cleans 12 luxury suites in an eight-hour day, has tidied after the Karshes, Belinda Stronach and the Ambassador of Iraq.

“I’m the one making the hospital corners,” she says. “We don’t use fitted sheets.”

Talwar, 55, likes to do extra things. For honeymooners, she’ll make a potpourri heart on the bed. If someone is walking barefoot, she offers slippers.

“I try to ask ‘Are you comfortable? Did you sleep well last night?’” If for example, it was too hot or too cold, she will send the engineering department to make adjustments.

Money on the bed means it’s for her. Japanese visitors put tips under pillows.

Spilled wine, confetti, baby cribs, and late checkouts — all this can slow her down. As Talwar completes each room, she gives thanks to God. “If a guest is happy then we will have a job and a business.”

Sophia Gibson-Williams also takes great pride. She gives each room a thorough search to make sure there are no surprises, such as forgotten clothing or garbage in drawers.

“When I’m done with a room, I stand outside and look in. It’s my finished product. When a guest opens the door they should say ‘Wow.’”

The Cook: Jimmy Bunnag

Jimmy Bunnag, 52, presides over a cooking station at the breakfast and lunch buffets in Wilfrid’s.

He cooks omelettes and pasta in front of guests with speed and accuracy, in spite of losing three fingers in a meat grinder in 1986 when he was learning his craft at Algonquin College.

“It’s no problem,” he says. “I’m ready for anything. I love it, every second. When you come to work at the Château you are among the best.

“Every day is a challenge for me. I see old clients coming in. I have to remember what they like. One is gluten-free, another is lactose-intolerant.”

Complaints about food or service come with the territory. “If someone wants to complain they will complain whether it’s McDonald’s or the Château Laurier.”

The Silver Burnisher: Bright Thambiah

The man who dazzles guests with gleaming silver table settings is aptly named.

Bright Thambiah (the sun was shining brightly when he was born in Sri Lanka) polishes silver all day.

“For me, this job is like an artist,” he explains. “I love it. The silver goes to the public. They pay a lot of money.”

Each day, Thambiah, 56, receives a list of functions which need silver and he assembles it in plastic bins. For instance, six pieces of cutlery each for 400 people attending a Rotary Club lunch. He does it by weight: 100 knives weigh 24.5 pounds.

The Guest Service Agent: Nina Scarpulla

“A lot of people think check in and out is straightforward,” says guest service agent Nina Scarpulla, 29. “It’s not.”

The computer system that tracks rooms, with their different prices and ever-shifting occupancy, is like a puzzle. Any change, such as early check-in or a room change, sets off a domino effect.

She processes about 40 people a day. At the same time, she’s dealing with complaints, giving directions to the airport, asking if guests want help with bags, and explaining the location of the restaurant, elevators and health club.

“We’re working in a very fast-paced environment,” she says. “You need to remain calm at all times. If you crack, the guests see that.”

The Sales Manager: Laurence Schaller

From her office on the mezzanine, Laurence Schaller spends her days on the phone drumming up business.

She is responsible for city, provincial and federal government conferences. On a typical day, she’ll make 20 cold calls to administrative assistants to introduce herself and find out about upcoming conferences.

“I’m there to try to convince them to use our beautiful property.”

She invites potential clients to lunch or dinner at the hotel and gives tours of the facilities.

She’s also responsible for organizing visits by foreign dignitaries, among them former Mexican president Vicente Fox, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

She attends embassy functions several evenings a week to network.

Schaller recalls her first day on the job 26 years ago when a gentleman asked for directions to Yousuf Karsh’s photo studio. “I explained very calmly. My heart was pounding. Then I nearly fainted. It was (French singer) Charles Aznavour.”

The Seamstress: Seamleng Ly

Seamleng Ly keeps busy at a sewing machine in the sub-basement. She alters staff uniforms, replaces torn buttons for guests and makes aprons for chefs out of old sheets.

The Executive Chef: Daniel Buss

After checking his email at 7 a.m., Chef Daniel Buss makes the rounds: He checks that fridges are clean and functioning, then he heads over to the breakfast buffet “to make sure everything looks top-notch, fresh, perfect.”

Buss previously worked at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle in Miami, Florida. He supervises about 30 cooks and is responsible for keeping costs in line.

On this day, there’s a lunch for 400 in the ballroom plus two other luncheons for 62 people.

Buss, 45, has also prepared a test meal of lamb and couscous for officials of the Embassy of Morocco, which is planning an event.

Later in the afternoon, he will meet with a purveyor bringing samples of hors d’oeuvres. Though most appetizers are prepared in-house, some are outsourced.

“Sometimes it’s a challenge for my staff to keep up with the volume,” he says. The kitchen produces more than 152,000 meals per year for Wilfrid’s, Zoe’s and La Terrace plus 182,000 meals for banquets.

Almost everything is made on site, including desserts, sauces and salad dressing, but bread and breakfast pastries come from local bakeries. .

Buss is also planning the menu for La Terrasse which will open for the season June 28. He’s thinking salmon burgers and steak frites. “Something casual, bistro-ish that you’d want to enjoy outside.”

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